Instant Runoff Voting
Pushing for more democratic forms of election systems. We can do much more in terms of democracatic viability locally. Solicitor's and External Reviews: As mayor, we'd direct the city's solicitor to review the legality of our various elections and include comments on Instant Runoff Voting and Full Representation Systems for our local governments including mayor, city council, clerk, controller, school board, and vacancies. Beyond the solicitors, we'd issue calls for party solicitors, state and county attorneys, and independent groups and the bar association to issue their own reform packages and statements to either support or reject the present conditions, pplus to suggests other positions. Pittsburgh as well as the state, needs to look and consider election efforts and legality of the systems for both the primary as well as for the general elections. The system is brittle and has not evolved. To flourish, we need ongoing evaluation and evolution. Rather, this system is stuck in some deep ruts. As a state senator, many of these same efforts can be instigated. Furthermore, some standing with the County elections and with the state-wide elections can also be pulled into the discussions. We'd start by drafting questionnaires that would help the solicitor and other agents in assisting. We would want to offer pointers to the potential obstacles to achieving election reform. As front-line advocates, we'd work with others and do a kick-off so as to pinpointing common legal, statutory, and technical obstacles to explore more in-depth measures in our jurisdiction. Reviews roll into summit sessions and public hearings. After a number of months and reports have been generated, both from within and beyond the ones with power positions, we'd call for a weekend summit and some public hearings. These meetings would include roundtable meetings, online chats, debate sessions, and polling to guage the various priorities and outcomes of the proceedings. Summits could be sponsored by local schools and history or civics teachers. Study Bill or Resolution: Introduce a bill or resolution that would create a commission to study the implementation of IRV or Full-Representation systems. CVD can help you draft the language for such a document, provided you with samples from other jurisdictions, as well as assist you in figuring out what considerations should go into such a bill. The results of such a study can be used to bolster your arguments for reform, as well as attract media and public attention to IRV and Full-Rep. systems. Charter Review: Both Pittsburgh and Allgheny County are due for a "charter review." These commissions are opportunities for good and evil. Tainted results are expected. We need to watch, like hawks, these charter review commissions and evaluations. The commissions need to address elements of democracy. We need to insist upon these elements as study chapters. I'd push for an intermediate review through a council or citizen-initiated review. Full representation can be used in different variations -- in at-large elections jurisdiction-wide, for example, and for multi-seat districts. Ballot Iniatiative: Start a council-generated or citizen-generated ballot initiative to adopt not only Instant Runoff Voting but also None Of The Above voting for our city and county. A number of ballot question movements can be provide with resources, information, and lessons from the work of others in other parts of the country. Council Bills or Resolutions: We expect to introduce resolutions and bills endorsing democratic systems. Bills can be good justifications for hold hearings to investigate voting systems and to highlight the deficiencies of the current system. Voting Machine Compliance: Make sure that our voting machines are compliant with various systems such as Instant Runoff Voting. Our machines need to be able to support rank-ballot designs before we can push for these solutions in real-life voting. We need to lobby our local board of elections and perhaps pass a resolution or ordinance to investigate or push this matter so the capabilities of the machines can be made public. Recommendations for voting machine vendors, overhauls and other aspects should be made public. Ballot designs and technical consulting can occur with little or no cost before inventory efforts are suggested. This step of exploration and documentation is very important. The devil can be in the details, and these details need to be published on the internet. Study on Fair Representation: Racial diversity in our jurisdictions is always a hot topic in Pittsburgh. Our neighborhoods change and these issues need to be watched every decade or so. Furthermore, if we have a rash of elected leaders who are all tossed out of office, those who are geared up to take their places need to be risk takers and known to the community for their ideas -- not just for their looks or name. How do we get more females into our elections? How do we get citizens to take on the challenge of running a campaign? How are the rookie politicians and candidates treated among the various community groups? Are opportunities to the new people made impossible because only the elected in other offices are getting the spotlight? We need to study the pathways to success for candidates and for making better represented bodies functional in our city and region. If there are under-representation, we should note it and ponder the ramifications and reasons. The potential of a voting rights lawsuits is present, but should be avoided so as to have a higher ceiling against litigation. Aside from avoiding litigation, is there interest in providing fairer representation? Such questions could lead to interesting community conversations and studies on means to provide fair representation. Studies could also be provided if there are other big divides in the jurisdiction -- over issues of parties, growth, professions and econics with winner-take-all politics leading to big shifts in support for different takes on that issue. Replacing Runoff Elections: If you have contingent runoffs for any office -- meaning that someone can win in the first round, but there is a second round with fewer candidates if no on reaches some minimum level of support (often 50%) -- then instant runoff voting can be particularly attractive, especially if it saves the cost of a second election. Vacancy Elections: Some vacancies are filled by special election, some by appointment. I frown upon appointments. Filling a vacancy by an election can be popular with voters. But, it can be expensive. However, Instant Runoff Elections could be a good solution. :Remember the field of candidates when Jim Ferlo left City Council for the PA Senate? There were many candidates seeking his spot. Single elections were not ideal. An instant runoff voting system would have made more sense rather than a single-round election. Narrow Uses: If you have runoff elections, instant runoff voting can be a sensible system to use for any overseas voters who are voting by absentee -- such as people in the military reserves. IRV and full representation also can make sense for some votes of the council -- for instance, when trying to narrow the field for picking someone to head a commission. Links: * for Voting and Democracy (CVD) Center for Voting and Democracy (CVD)] Planks * Instant Runoff Voting-plank-Dopp Details * http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/irvoting.pdf MN insights on IRV